As I wrote on Monday, I had no plans to watch or listen to what was called the presidential “debate” on Wednesday evening. The news chatter surrounding this media debacle, appropriately staged in Las Vegas, suggested the event would give undecided voters one last chance to see the candidates in action. As if somehow, after all these months of rhetoric, clusters of citizens did not possibly know the two major candidates.

Even without opening a news app, a search engine, or the silly slender paper offering chucked angrily on my doorstep each morning, I know the possible outcomes. It’s either “happy days are here again” or “it’s the end of the world as we know it.”

So, which is it?

If “happy days are here again” then there is no need for me to write further. The nation will move into a new sphere of nirvana, prosperity will return, and we’ll stop fighting with our neighbors.

If, however, “it’s the end of the world as we know it,” we’ll need to make some adjustments. The world has never actually “ended.” If it did end once and we are living in a new world, the old world left no survivors or evidence of its existence. So we are left without a compass to navigate this last trip.

The question has been asked before. How now shall we live?

I’ve pondered this question for a long time. Not just in the few hours prior to writing this blog post, but since 2008 when I had an “awakening” of sorts. In the years following the experience, I’ve considered a number of things I could do in the event “it’s the end of the world as we know it.” I’ve made some changes, like moving to a less populated area which was also closer to my family. The move has not been stress free; change is hard. The last three years have been filled with as much anxiety as happiness; storms and calms. I’ve encountered new and different tribulations; in 2008, my primary concern was having a reliable vehicle to transport me to Boston for Junior League meetings. Now, I am thinking about how to make my home more energy-efficient and how to expand my garden next summer.

Sometimes I wish I had been born at another time. I don’t care for the “vibe” of the current world; the divisiveness of social media, the coarseness of culture, and the lack of civic virtue. I’ve blogged about “1949” and how interesting life seemed at that time. True, nostalgia colors our view of the past. But if I had a time machine, I’d like to go back and live in 1949 for a while.

When is Elon Musk and SpaceX going to develop a time machine?

Oh, he’s not? Then I guess time travel back to 1949 will not be possible.

Darn, that was my finest recommendation for surviving the coming…whatever. The rest of my suggestions pale in comparison; they’re mostly a reiteration of things I’ve written about here in the past. In the almost three years since I’ve lived here in my old house, I’ve done more of the following things:

Reading books,

Eating meals at the table,

Fixing things that are broken,

Getting outside every day, and

Praying.

I won’t be able to expand on these things today, but they seem so simple they may not need any elaboration.